MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

6/15 Extra bases & lineup

* Friday is Game 1 of a three-game series between the Cubs and Red Sox, who first met in the 1918 World Series, which Boston won, 4-2. They did not meet again until June 2005 in a three-game Interleague series at Wrigley Field. Last season, the Cubs and Red Sox squared off at Fenway Park, which was Chicago’s first visit there in nearly 93 years.

* Ryan Dempster enters Friday’s game with a 15 inning scoreless streak. His 2.31 ERA ranks fifth in the NL, and he is the only pitcher in the big leagues to make at least 11 starts and have two wins or fewer despite a sub 3.00 ERA.

* The Cubs have scored 121 runs in their 21 wins, an average of 5.8 runs per game. They’ve totaled 112 runs in 42 losses, an average of 2.7 runs per game. When they do score four runs, they’re 17-13.

* The Cubs are 105-124 in Interleague play since 1997, and 2-7 this season.

8 Comments

There’s no increasing Soriano’s trade value to an NL team but if he continues to hit hopefully there will be an AL sucker GM thinking Soriano’s bat at DH will be “good enough” for the next 2 1/2 seasons. Go Soriano!!!

walking campana not the best way to start off the game. how about that dempster. 22 scoreless innings. gonna be sad to see him go, but luckily he probably not going to have another year of same performance. sad to see castro struggling, but nice win for the cubbies.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.